Weekly Wrap-Up Thing 10: Social Reading – Goodreads and Library Thing

It was another fairly quiet week on the ANZmThings front, although it did seem that quite a lot of people were willing to try out LibraryThing and Goodreads (or resurrect old accounts)…is everyone starting to feel the weight of the mid-year slump? Or perhaps we are all busy trying to catch up on the interesting ‘Things’ we have come in contact with over the past 11 weeks…has it been 11 weeks!? How time flies!

It seems that the majority of people (myself included) have used Goodreads and are quite the fans, speaking from a personal experience, I love the ‘Recommendation’ aspect of Goodreads, although it certainly doesn’t help my funds.

There seemed to be a consensus that Goodreads is a great personal network for reading, while LibraryThing provides a variety of ‘extras’ that can help libraries, particularly smaller libraries, organise their collections.

And it seems that many of us would like to see LibraryThing develop an app, rather than simply a mobile site. One of the most convenient aspects of Goodreads (in my humble opinion) is the book scanner, using the Goodreads app you can simple scan a books barcode and it is saved into your ‘to-read’ list, or wherever you would like to place it, and excellent tool if you can’t afford all those great books that are tempting you, or are researching for your library.

This week a lot of us had fun with “What Reader Species Are You?” (I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’m definitely “The Compulsive Book Buyer).

It was also interesting to see Goodreads information on the “most abandoned books”.

@stokesrenee had a great post on her blog about her reflections on Goodreads and LibraryThing and led us to another interesting article on “LibraryThing vs Goodreads” (Goodreads comes out on top on this article…what do you guys think?).

@SarahJLisle had a great post on Social Reading and why she finds it so useful. She also pointed out a book that she feels all librarians should read: http://www.librarything.com/work/13292773/book/99705411 (also available on Goodreads, but I feel as if I’ve given Goodreads a lot of space in this post).

@luvviealex gave us a look at her personal profiles on LibraryThing and Goodreads,

a great way to compare the differences between the two.

Final Thoughts:

It would appear that most people who contributed in the discussion this week agree that Goodreads and LibraryThing are great tools, particularly to keep track of the many, many books out there. They both have their pros and cons and it seems that it is a matter of playing around with these tools to find out what best suits your library and personal needs.

It was great learning about Goodreads and LibraryThing this week, and seeing people’s opinions and uses of these great Social Reading tools.

I love connecting with different readers, so feel free to add me on Goodreads.

-Laura @lor_rahh

Books, Books and Books

We asked last week what non-fiction, work related book you would recommend to others doing the ANZ 23 Mobile Things program.

Below is what you told us.  If you think of any others let us know on twitter, facebook or in the comments.

Dewey the Library Cat

The Atlas of New Librarianship

Five Billion Sold: The Amazing Facts Behind the Fiction

The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family

Graph Paper for Your Copier

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness

The Leadership Challenge

The Winter of Our Disconnect

Social Reading: Goodreads & Library Thing

Social reading is “actually quite simple: people want to share what they have read with other people and receive feedback about their thoughts and ideas.” (Mennella, 2001)
Two social reading platforms are GoodReads and Library Thing. These services allow Readers to create a catalogue of the books they own, have read and intend to read. These catalogues are shared with the GoodReads community along with star ratings and reviews.
These networks also allow readers to “be their own librarian” common features include the ability to:

• Gather metadata about your collection
• Track your reading and list your to do read pile
• Arrange your collection on virtual shelves or by tagging in ways that make sense to you
• Connect to other readers or groups and get recommendations from them
• Rate and review books you’re read
• Participate in Book Club style discussions of authors, works or genres
• Access prepub and free copies of books for review

Both networks also offer Facebook and twitter integration for those who like to share more widely.

EXPLORE

• Sign up for a Goodreads, Library Thing or other social reading account. Having trouble choosing have a look at Library Thing vs Goodreads by Amanda Nelson of Book Riot. (nearly a year old so take with a pinch of salt gives a nice sense of the different flavours of each service)
• Download the Goodreads app and experience the geeky pleasure of using a barcode reader recreationally
• Join a group on Goodreads or Library Thing and compare the activity to in person bookclubs you offer or attend.

DISCOVER

• What’s on the horizon for social reading
• What is Social Reading and Why Should Libraries Care? a guest Post by Amanda Mennella for Tame the Web
• How does this apply to ebooks

THINKING POINTS

• Could you use for social reading tools in your library?
• Compare this current openness about reading history with the protests by Librarians against of the patriot act. Do your clients have the digital literacy to protect their privacy and personal brand when sharing their reading lives?
• Do companies like Goodreads and Library Thing who are providing services traditionally associated with libraries present a threat or an opportunity for Libraries

This post is based on 23mobilethings.net Thing 10.